Sierra Leone Business: Addax Bioenergy to Terminate Hundreds of Employment Contracts

Addax Bioenergy is laying off hundreds of workers who have been sent on Garden Leave at its sugarcane bioethanol and renewable electricity operation in Makeni, Sierra Leone, the company said in a statement on June 16. The company refers to the redundancy exercise that began on June 14 as “the third and final extension of the Downscaling Agreement governing the employment of staff on Garden Leave at its sugarcane bioethanol and renewable electricity operation in Makeni, Sierra Leone.”
“They[Addax] nevertheless continue to work closely with H.E. the President of Sierra Leone and his government, and remain hopeful that a solution may still be found in the coming days to ensure the future of the operation. In this regard, a large number of employees made redundant would be offered seasonal employment contracts effective 1st July 2016, and most employees affected by the current redundancy process would be given preference to re-apply for their positions,” the release said.
Addax Bioenergy a subsidiary of AOG, was created in 2008 as a Greenfield operation to produce sugarcane ethanol and green electricity from the biomass to power the plant and provide excess energy to the national grid. It was earmarked to produce 16 megawatt to the national grid.
“The first production took place in May 2014, while the first exports of certified bioethanol to Europe took place during the 2015 season, as production stops during the rainy season from May to November,” according to the statement.
The decision to downscale began in June last year as the operation had to overcome a number of unforeseeable events, which significantly impacted on the timeframe, costs and revenues initially planned. The ebola outbreak that began in May 2014 had a terrible human toll on the country, and led to substantial delays as most of Addax Bioenergy’s contractors declared “force majeure” and left the site, the release said.
The company is doing the redundancy in accordance with national legislative procedures to terminate employment contracts,’ the company claims. This will include consultations with the Minister of Labour and Social Services and the Multi Stakeholders Consultative Forum.